Pas de Deux
by power-of -the-lightning-bolt
Summary: AU This is Lily's seventh year at the Hogwarts School of Dance and she wants the scouts to notice her. With an arrogant new partner and sabotage will she be accepted to the company at the end of the year?
1. Chapter 1

Author's Note: I know this a bit different. Bear with me, I've had this in my head for a long time. I think I will keep posting even if everyone hates it becuase I like writing it. If you don't understand the terms I will post the link to a ballet dictionary. Please give this a chance!

"Thirty-two changements and you can leave," said the instructor.

Lily stood in the back of the room in fifth position waitingwhile Madame McGonagall put on the music, it had a fast beat. Thirty-two changements may seem quickto a normal person, but to a dancer it took forever.

"Keep to the beat, Miss Evans," she heard. Lily had been lost in her thoughts once again, and had gotten behind; not to mention she was on the wrong foot.

The music stopped and all the dancers in the room applauded themselves, it was tradition at the highly prestigious Hogwarts Ballet that at the end of the class you applaud yourself for the hard effort and it boosted confidence. The castle where the professinal company stayed also doubled as a school, and Lily Evans was in the graduating class.

You stayed at Hogwarts for seven years of training and then at the end of the year there was a recital put on by the whole school and scouts from other companies would come and watch the seventh years to hopefully recruit some of them, but the best ones stayed at Hogwarts.

Hogwarts was an enormous castle somewhere in Scotland. There were many rumors as to how the castle got its name, but Lily considered them all just rumors. The littlest ones all believed in a ghost story that the old castle had once contained witches and wizards and that ghosts indeed still haunted the halls at night

Lily walked down the stairs from the tower down to the Great Hall to grab her lunch before her next class. She still needed to finish some homework for her academic classes, but that could wait for later. She always put off her schoolwork for dancing. She really wished that she didn't have to do any academic work at all, dancing was her calling, her passion, her life! She found that she really didn't need any friends here, she had a few friends, but she wasn't popular and the few friends she did have were all younger than her.

As she entered the Great Hall, she noticed that the normal short tables had been replaced with four long wooden ones. She sat went through the lunch line and sat down at the far end of one of the tables in the middle. As she was finishing up a report for her English Literature class the doors to the Great Hall flew open and four boys walked in.

The first one was Sirius Black. He was a great dancer but his expression needed a bit more work, his facial expressions always made the audiences laugh, and that's not good in a dramatic ballet. He had almost the perfect body for a male dancer, he was very muscular, but he was a tad bit overweight for a dancer. It would all come off in time, Lily thought, but for now it just bothered her. His eyes were a stormy grey color and most girls absolutely fell for them. His hair was floppy and black and he was a huge flirt.

The second was Remus Lupin. He was a bit short for the average male dancer, but he was very good, and it all worked out because he got paired with the short ballerinas, and there were plenty of them. He had honey colored eyes and hair to match, but in some light his hair looked grey. Lily assumed that was just her imagination working overtime though. He always looked a bit tired, but his energy was unlimited during class when everyone else was tired and panting and the strength in his legs was above average--he could jump the highest that Lily had ever seen!

The third boy was Peter Pettigrew. He was a bit of joke really. He got extremely confused during classes, especially when they were working across the floor on turns. The teachers let it go though because he was extremely rich and the son of two famous ballet dancers. He was not the ballet type at all, he was short and fat. His little beady eyes were very watery and it seemed the the only expression on his face ever was nervousness. His eyes were constantly moving back and forth as if he was waiting for someone to attack him. In fact in class the only thing he was decent at was jumping!

The last one to walk through the doors was James Potter, and how annoying he was! He was tall, dark, and handsome. Almost the whole female population at Hogwarts was after him, and wanted to be his partner, but it almost never worked out because he was very tall. There were only three girls that were put with him constantly, Alice Longbottom, Dorcas Meadows, and Lily. Lily hated it though.

Lily hated James. He was very cocky and arrogant and thought that he was the best out of the boys. Lily had to admit that even though he was new to Hogwarts (he had only come at the beginning of this year, and yet he clicked so well with everyone), he was the best. He didn't have to flaunt it though! James hadn't figured out quite yet that Lily was unpopular and for some reason he was pursuing Lily every chance he got. He just would not leave her alone.

As soon as she saw them heading her way the bell rang for the next class. It was time for math. Lily picked up her bags and flew out of the Great Hall before he could catch up with her.

"Potter you're late, take a seat," said the math teacher four minutes later. Lily smirked at the fact that James was once again late for class, but unfortunately, the only seat left was the one behind her. She inwardly groaned.

"And you must keep each side of the equation equal. Whatever you do to one side you must do to the other. Now, first you subtract all the positive numbers from the side without x, and then you must subtract the same numbers on the side with x on it," started the teacher, Professor Flitwick who also doubled as one of the dance instructors.

All of a sudden Lily heard heavy breathing behind her and then she felt it on her neck. She quickly turned around and James smiled.

"Stop it," she whispered and tried to concentrate on the math again.

She felt it again, and then something poked her neck. Quickly she raised her hand.

"Yes, Miss Evans?" said the short man as he saw her hand go up.

"Can you make James stop breathing so loudly?" she asked. The whole class started to laugh, including the teacher.

"James stop breathing," the teacher commanded with a twinkle in his eye.

There were two minutes left of class and amazingly James held his breath for the whole time, the whole class laughing for the two minutes. As soon as he got out in the hall he was gasping for breath.

Next was a ballet class. It was one of the ones that included partners so that they could work on lifts.

Lily emerged from the dressing rooms to find that the usual groups were already sitting there talking to each other. She sat alone near the bar, stretching before class. When she was done stretching the put on her pointe shoes and laced them up carefully. She always loved putting them on because she had dreamed of it when she was a little girl.

She saw James over in the corner staring at her. She glared back, James smiled and turned towards his friends to say something.

Mr. Dumbledore, who was also the Headmaster of the school walked in. Somtimes he taught this class and sometimes he didn't. Lily always liked it when the older man taught the class because they always learned something new.

As soon as music filled the room, all the students hurried for the barre.

"We'll start with the basics to warm up. Plie twice then grand plie, then releve into passe and hold for four counts. Port a bras. Cambre forward come up and developpe en croix. Repeat forever and a day please," he said as he found the track he wanted.

A few students laughed at the last part. Dumbledore always found a way to make them laugh.

As soon as they got to the grand plie he stopped the music.

"Most of you are doing it wrong. Let's have an example. Miss Evans do a grand plie," he said while walking over to her.

As she released her heels he stopped her.

"Do a demi plie and I'll tell you when you can release your heels."

Lily went as far as she thought she possibly could, but he still didn't say anything. He held down her feet with one hand and pushed her down farther with the other one.

"Do you feel it? You need to feel that every time you do a plie, or else you're being lazy," he said.

"Release your heels now."

Lily did as she was told and went down even farther.

"Your heels must touch when you're all the way down. Do it again."

This seemed to go on forever but she finally got it, and they all went back to doing the original exercise.

They finally got to the center floor and she had to pair up with James.

"Sit down," Dumbledore said as he pulled a chair to the front of the room.

They all sat down.

"This is your final year. We would like you all to become successful dancers but some of you are being lazy. This year will be harder than ever and we will be pushing you to do beyond your best. For the next few months we will be working on The Nutcracker, which will be performed two weeks before Christmas. The rest of the year we will be working on improving your technique. For the next week I will be observing you in class and that's how I will cast you, so try your best, now do you have any questions?"

Author's Note: Well I must go now. I will post this now and hopefully another chapter this weekend. Please review. I want to know whether I should even bother.


	2. Eavesdropping

As they left the classroom James caught up with Lily.

"Peter's familiy is throwing a party for the fourth years and up during Christmas, I was wondering if maybe you'd want to come with me," he said.

Lily turned towards him. "Me? Go with you to a party? I don't think so. That would be like social suicide for you. And you better be good during class. I don't want you to screw this up for me. I want to get a decent part in the ballet this year, so don't screw it up," she said icily. She had never liked Potter. He probably had some ulterior motive to get her to come with him anyway. She didn't need people like that though.

James was still standing in front of her. Lily made a face at him that was best described as "childish" and slung the bag that held her ballet stuff over her shoulder, leaving James alone in the hallway by himself looking stupid as she headed off to another ballet class.

* * *

Sirius found James in the hall about thirty seconds after Lily left. 

"What's the matter, Prongs?" he asked.

"Don't call me that. It's stupid _Padfoot_," James replied.

"Hey! We have a free period, and there's a girl's class going on now, do you want to try and see into the dressing room?" Sirius asked with a large grin forming on his face.

"You'll do nothing of the sort, Black," said a stern voice from behind him.

"Hello Professor McGonagall," Sirius replied, turning to face his teacher.

"I think that the floors of my studio need to be washed. Be there at 10:00--_both_ of you," she said while turning on her heel, and she left.

"You've got to love her," Remus said coming out from behind a corner.

"I didn't even do anything!" James whined.

"Tough luck," Peter said, running his hand through his hair, an annoying habit that he picked up from James. If only he could imitate James' dancing.

"We were headed to do what Sirius suggested, but seeing as he got caught she'll be expecting you to go down anyway. With our luck she's probably already found the hole we made. The other guys are going to really appreciate that one, Sirius," Remus said, answering James' first question.

The boys had finally decided to go outside and join in a game of ditch, which got boring pretty fast because it was still light. Ultimately it turned into a dance-off that was pretty lame. It wasn't your normal dance-off though. It was completely and totally ballet themed. Any non-dancing person would have laughed at the sight, but they took it very seriously, trying to see who could do the most turns and the highest jumps; the most complicated sequence, and who had the highest extension.

* * *

Lily took her free period to go roaming around the castle. There really wasn't much to do at this time of day. She could always join the girls in her year to gossip and do other things that they do. Actually she had no clue what they did. 

Soon enough she found herself at one of the classrooms. Each room was just about the same. They all had slow floors (floors that aren't made of wood and make you work harder on turning so that when you did get onto a fast floor your technique/control is better) and the wall that was closest to the hallways had large gaps, like windows, that you could observe the class from.

Lily stood and watched one of the lower classes from the windows.

She guessed that it was a second year class because the girls were not yet on pointe, and there weren't any boys in the class.

"Ah Miss Evans couldn't stay away, could you?" asked Madame McGonagall as soon as she noticed Lily and granted her one of her rare smiles.

"No, I couldn't," Lily replied smiling too.

"Why don't you join us then?" Madame McGonagall asked.

"All right," Lily replied and went into the dressing room to get changed.

A few minutes later she was dressed and at the barre with the rest of the students. Some of the girls were staring at her in awe, and a couple of the students lookeda bit snobby, no doubt they were related to the Malfoys. They had the trademark blonde hair and they were staring at her with cold grey eyes.

She was enjoying herself for once. One of her friends were in this class too, and they had fun. Near the end of class she ended up taking over for McGonagall who had to go deal with some rowdy students in the hall. She seemed to take her time coming back though. She finally dismissed the class five minutes before the bell rang so that they wouldn't have to rush in getting changed for their next class.

* * *

Lucius Malfoy passed the hall where some of the lower classes were held. He stealthily observed, making sure no one could see him, he was not supposed to be down here, Dumbledore's orders because a few months back he had been caught in...inappropriate acts with one of the younger ladies. 

He didn't need that anymore though. He had Narcissa, who was definitely one of the better dancers in their year. He had just proposed to Narcissa Black, and Sirius was so mad about it. He didn't want to be related to the Malfoys at all, not even distantly.

The problem was that Lucius and Narcissa had been dance partners for as long as he could remember, and they had always been the best. It seemed that this year they had competition though with Potter and Evans. Those two had to be stopped, or he and Narcissa would have no chance at all with the scouts at the end of the year. Not to mention Potter was so much more popular, and Evans' technique and expression could not be any better. She was like a professional already! She wasn't exactly popular but her talent was deeply respected.

Back to the situation at hand though. The reason he had come down here was because one of his little followers said he had seen one of the graduating students in a younger class. Who was it? None other than Lily Evans.

"So, Evans can't keep away from dancing," he said to himself. He laughed to himself, he could spin this so that it looked as if Evans was having trouble, and with his connections he could have her placed as a snowflake in the Nutcracker. Everyone knew that the snowflakes were always played by the mediocre dancers.

There shouldn't even be a role reserved for poor dancers. There shouldn't be any at Hogwarts. They weren't being selective enough lately. It seemed as if anyone who wanted in could be in. That was a bit of an exaggeration, but still. It used to be that you had to have dancing blood. You had to have family members that had been a part of a ballet. You had to grow up around it. A lot of the younger children now had only had pathetic public classes taught by wannabes and failures.

Evans certainly wouldn't be getting the lead in the Nutcracker this year. He would make sure of that.

* * *

James was walking back to hiscommon roomin low spirits. He couldn't believe that Lily had refused him. That had never happened to him. Everything had seemed to go so well the first couple of weeks. He thought that things had been going well here. Apparently not.

No girl had ever refused James Potter, and he was not going to let it happen. She may have refused him once, but he would get her in the end. He would be going out with her by the end of the year. He passed the classrooms of the younger years. There was a class going on in the far one. He passed it and observed for a few minutes. Why was Lily there? He watched in puzzlement as Lily caught his eye and glared at him. Eventually McGonagall left and Lily was teaching the class. James was impressed that the older woman trusted her with the class. He watched for a few more minutes and continued on to the common room.

"Where are you headed?" Sirius asked. It was starting to get dark out now.

"I'm headed to the common room, you know that, I'm going to finish up some homework and then we have class with Dumbledore, you know my schedule better than I do, Sirius," James answered with a smile.

"I'm going to see if I can talk McGonagall out of giving us detention," Siriussaid as he turned from James to find the strict teacher.

* * *

On the way to her classroom he ran into Lily, literally. 

"Hey, what's up with you and James?" he asked.

"Aren't you going to apologize to me, Black?" Lily countered.

"For what? You ran into me," Sirius replied.

"You ran into me,"

"No I didn't,"

"Yes you did,"

"Fine, sorry, Lily," Sirius said finally.

"Apology accepted, now what were you asking about before?" Lily asked, brushing a piece of her red hair out of her face. He could definitely see why James had asked her out that day. Her red hair went down to the middle of her back, and her pale skin was perfect for a dancer. She had a very classical face with stunning green eyes. She had the perfect body for a dancer too. She was made to be a dancer.

"I was wondering if you wanted to go to the party with me this Christmas," he said quickly.

"Why wouldI go with you when I wouldn't go with your best friend?" Lily said, raising one of her eyebrows.

"Right. Well I'll just go then," Sirius said, a bit embarrassed and he turned around clumsily.

As he walked down the hall Lily called out for him.

"I'll go with you Sirius," she agreed with a smile.

James was going to kill him for this.

* * *

Lily went up to her dorm room with a smile on her face. She felt a whole lot happier now.

She was a bit nervous about going to one of these parties with Sirius. She had only been to one of them in her life, and that had ended disasterously!

She collapsed on her bed and slept the rest of the day.

When she woke up the next morning and headed to breakfast there were whispers following her the whole way. It only got worse when she entered the Great Hall.

She casually left the room and went to find a mirror. Did she look funny?

She couldn't find anything wrong so she went to the kitchens to eat. She liked the secluded room better anyway.

When she headed to class the next period, Narcissa Black approached her in the dressing room. She stood in front of Lily for a while. Lily ignored her and took her new toepads out of her bag and put them in her shoes. Finally as she was lacing up the slippers, Narcissa coughed a bit.

"What do you want?" Lily asked sweetly.

"I just wanted to thank you for making it easier for me to get the lead, I heard about your trouble with this class," Narcissa replied with a smirk. Lily had no clue what she was talking about though so she ignored Narcissa once more and walked out into the studio to warm up at the barre.

McGongall came in a few minutes later to start class.

"We'll start easy today. Two tendues en croix (en croix means in the shape of a cross so you'd go to the front, side, back, side, front and you repeat that, and a tendue is when you brush your foot out from being flat to the ball of your foot and then as far as you can point it and then reverse the process). Repeat that four times and then grand plie, when you come up passe (bringing the working leg up from the floor to have the foot pointed and resting just above your knee) then I want you to extend your leg out as high as you can. Retire back (bring your working leg from being extended back to passe), do this en croix. Repeat the whole thing three times and then we'll do the other side," she said as she started the music.

That lesson they never got off the barre. Dumbledore wasn't kidding when he said that they would be working them this year.

"Miss Evans, could I see you after class?" McGonagall asked as they were perfecting their jumps at the barre. It was very elementary stuff. Lily nodded and heard a few giggles behind her coming from Narcissa and her friends.

Lily then realized what Narcissa must have been talking about.

**Author's Note: Well I hope that this was ok. Not too much dancing in this chapter, I kind of couldn't get the site up that I was using to look up definitions of the moves and spellings and I refuse to elaborate when I don't have the correct spellings. I had more to this story but we have really crappy weather right now. In fact the tornado sirens are going off as I write this. I should probably be downstairs but I'd rather be writing. I'll go downstairs when I hear the actual tornado coming...or when I see it out the window. Anyway, I forgot to save and I lost about three pages to this because the power went out. **

**I was so surprised at the positive feedback I got from you guys. Thank you so much, I was so worried that this story would be flamed and flamed and flamed. **

**Thank you to: **chelseaKitschy Kitty, starbursweetie, Mysteriouslily, andirule-udroolyour reviews mean a lot! I loved the positive feedback and enthusiasm!

watersprite87: No, I've never seen Center Stage. Is it completely about ballet, or dance in general? I had never even thought anybody would think of doing dance stories with Harry Potter but I did a search and found a few. I was quite surprised at the inaccuracy of many of them, oh well. What stories do you recommend? Any other movies that you recommend? I loved "The Company" in fact there's this one quote that I'm planning to name a chapter after. I don't know exactly what he does, but I just know that he's like the boss of the ballet company that the movie is about and he's over the intercom in the dressing rooms and he's like "and over Christmas break eat lots of vegetables I don't want you all to get fat. I've noticed your eating a lot of junk, and remember--have safe sex babies!" It's hilarious, I end up laughing every single time.

niki: I love dancing too! It's my passion in life. I was glad you liked the idea!

lilred-07- I hope the descriptions in this chapter help. It's not really the easiest to understand, it just comes as second nature. I love ballet too. I love it to pieces! It was so nice to hear from you again, I was thinking maybe you completely dropped off the planet! I remember your story it was called something like "Try, Try Again" are you going to repost it? It was one of my favorites! Yeah the math...pretty basic stuff (it was like something we covered at the beginning of my pre-algebra class). It was the only thing I really understood though. Things got so much more complicated after that and this year algebra is going to be my first high-school credit. I might actually have to study. That's going to leave a lot less time for writing. Oh well.

Thank you everyone...and the next update for any story is not going to come that soon because we're taking the computer in (again) because Microsoft Word is not working. And then starting July 1st my mother will be home during the day so I don't know if I'm going to have any access to the computer since she dislikes me being on the computer all day. As I like to say: have faith and review!

I was thinking if maybe I started a dictionary at the bottom of the chapter or if I left a link maybe that would help? It gets tedious to have to describe everything, tell me what you guys would prefer!


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